Editing

Recently, I read an exchange on a forum in which someone wrote to another "thanks for the bump". Now I know I should be more up to date on current lingo, and I know I've heard the term before, but what exactly does a "bump" mean in this usage? Thanks. -Patty

Yes, I have seen that also on other boards and forums.

Unlike this forum where a posting stays where it is and people just add to it, there are other forum software packages which, when someone responds to a posting, moves or "bumps" the posting and the reply to the top of the page.

So a subject or query which becomes inactive can be brought back to life by someone posting to it.

When this occurs the original poster will respond by saying "Thanx for the bump".

Every once in a while I'm foolishly tempted to think the other format is better, because it brings your attention to the newest posts... but ... then I imagine those dreary Whole Nine Yards postings coming back again and again to the top, and I'm gratelful we have this format which allows them to sink slowly southward without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and un-bumped.

But it would be nice to be able to edit one's own posts.

I'd like to edit mine sometimes, but I don't think bumpability would enable it. If I could change my message after posting it, others could change my message too. The potential for a game of "Let's you and him fight" is obvious.

No, there's a password so only you can edit your own post.

When l'esprit de l'escalier strikes?